Italy's Sorrentine Peninsula and Torre Santa Sabina

Italy's Untamed East Coast

Take the time to travel up Italy's east coast and the Sorrentine Peninsula and you will realise that here it is the sea that rules. The towns and villages - as small as they are - which dot this coast, are there at the forbearance of the ocean; sometimes gentle and sometimes ferocious. There is no escape when the sea becomes angry and churns like a wild beast.

So many moods; sometimes soft and gentle with golden sands and lapping ripples, at other times moody and uneasily threatening

- ready to turn, ready to pounce. The surface heaves with a suppressed power yet scarcely a ripple breaks the taut surface.


Along the coast the shore dwellers thrive yet also suffer from the moods of the coast.









Everyone loves the sea. Tourists and holiday-makers flock to the summer seaside.





Restaurants flourish and hotels overflow. Yet in winter also, these coast dwellers must find ways to survive.

A beautiful spot such as Torre Santa Sabina has its history to fall back on. Impregnable watch towers guard the harbour and the coast as they have done for centuries. Once the beacon lights were lit on these towers to relay warnings along the coast of an approaching invasion. Today the only thing that these watchtowers still stand guard over is usually a small harbour fleet of fishing boats waiting for a favourable turn in the weather.




Brindisi - the jumping off point to the Aegean Sea and the Greek towns and islands, -  is little more than an embarkation point to many. Yet go north, go south ... there is so much to fall in love with. This east coast of Italy  -  facing out towards Albania - is sparsely populated and rugged. The settlements are small and unspoiled. Tourists are accepted but not a priority. Along such a beautiful stretch of coast this is bound to change. Already the population swells in tens of thousands during the weeks of high summer. However the dramatic beauty of this coast in winter has its own simmering appeal. It is this magnetic attraction to the sea in all its moods which ties the locals to their precarious coastal existence.

Apulia - or Puglia, another name for the same region -  is an area of small towns, rocky cliffs, sheltered bays and coves. It is historic and it is modern. It is the area of Italy to go to if you want to mingle with the locals as you dine on the freshest of fish and enjoy a limoncello. In the eighth century BC the first signs of inhabitants were recorded. These were the ancient Greeks, and they knew what they were doing.

Also Pip McCurdy's New Zealand posts:

On Blogspot, Pip McCurdy on the Road

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